Coming Home

  “The sirens.” He looked at Reagan and then over his shoulder at Dayne. “So many sirens, huh?”

  “And ambulances.” Dayne’s face was masked in concern. “When’s Dad supposed to be here?”

  Katy was behind him with baby Egan in her arms and Sophie beside her. “Maybe we should call him, make sure he’s okay.”

  Ashley’s mind began to spin. Landon came up and put his arm around her shoulders. He whispered close to her. “It’s okay. It’s not him.”

  “Yeah.” She blinked a few times and tried to avert the panic closing in on her. “Could you call him?”

  “Sure. It probably has something to do with the construction. A fender bender, maybe.” He pulled his cell phone from his pocket as the other adults waited. Then he tapped the face of his phone a few times and put it to his ear. After a handful of seconds he grinned. “Hey, John … Landon. Just wanted to make sure you and Elaine were running on time. The burgers are ready.”

  Landon smiled big and gave the group a thumbs-up. “Okay, then. We’ll see you in fifteen.” He hesitated. “Okay. All right. Drive safely.”

  He tapped the phone again. “He’s fine. They’re on time.”

  “Good.” Luke looked more relieved than the others. “It was just a lot of sirens.”

  “Anyway …” Dayne had a case of water, too. “This is a party … enough talk of sirens.” He grinned at the others and walked around the room hugging Ashley and Landon and Kari and Ryan. “It’s been too long. What? Three months?”

  “Since Bailey and Brandon’s wedding, so yep. Three months.” Kari walked over to the sleeping Egan. “He’s huge. Look at him!” She reached out and took the sleeping baby from Katy. “He’s almost one, right?”

  “Yes,” Katy laughed. “And he weighs as much as a two-year-old.”

  Dayne puffed out his chest, his eyes bright with teasing. “Gonna be tall like his dad.”

  “Or taller still, like his uncle.” Luke laughed and gave Dayne a lighthearted punch in the arm. He peered at the baby. “Right, little Egan?”

  Ashley felt herself relax, but she still didn’t feel quite at ease. She wouldn’t until she knew everyone in her family was safe. The group spread out into the kitchen just as Brooke arrived. She had Maddie and Hayley with her, but like the others her first concern was the sirens. “An ambulance raced past me and a few seconds later another one.” She brought iced tea, and after she set the jug down she crossed her arms and faced the others. “Where’s Erin?”

  “Almost here.” Ashley was quick to answer. She had to be, right? She’d been running pretty much on time, which meant if anything she’d be stuck in traffic from the construction or whatever accident was causing the trouble.

  “I turned on the radio. I guess it was a pileup on the highway.”

  “Probably a bunch of sprained necks.” Dayne took a few grapes from the plate Ashley had set out. “Never good. But the construction keeps things too slow for it to be very serious.”

  They all nodded and several conversations broke out among them. Kari and Dayne and Katy … Ryan and Luke and Reagan. Meanwhile the kids ran out back checking out the frogs around the pond. After a few minutes, everything felt perfectly normal, all concern about sirens and ambulances gone.

  Except for Ashley.

  She could feel her heart racing. A feeling of doom had settled over her at the first mention of the sirens, and like sap she couldn’t shake it, couldn’t brush it off. With everyone talking, she slipped away to her bedroom unnoticed. Her hands trembled as she dialed Erin’s number.

  The phone rang once, twice, three times and then it went to voicemail. “Hey, Erin. It’s me. Ash.” She tried to still her shaking hands. “Listen, we’re all here and Dad’s pretty much on his way. Let me know if you’re running late or stuck in traffic. I can still call him and try to buy a little time. Okay.” She hesitated. “Call me back. Love you.”

  She’d kept her voice to a whisper because the last thing she wanted was to alarm the others. Especially when Landon and Dayne were no doubt right. Of all the hundreds and thousands of cars out and about in Bloomington that sunny Saturday June afternoon, the odds that the accident involved Erin and Sam were unbelievably slim.

  Still …

  She stared at her phone, willing it to ring. When it didn’t, she had no choice but to join the others. Cole was just running into the house from the backyard. “Mom, can I get water bottles for everyone? It’s burning up out there.”

  “Of course.” Ashley’s mouth felt dry. She wondered if she were the only one of her siblings battling a tsunami of fear and if she was crazy for letting herself feel this way. She walked toward the kitchen with Cole beside her. What was it he wanted? She reached the stack of plastic cups. “Iced tea?” She smiled at him.

  “Mom … are you okay?” Cole leaned in, studying her eyes. “You don’t look good.”

  “I’m fine.” She didn’t want the others to hear him. With all her energy she mustered the most normal smile she could find. “You didn’t want tea?”

  “I asked for water bottles.” He still sounded worried about her. “For all the cousins.”

  “Right.” Get it together, Ashley. Don’t act crazy. She managed a pinched laugh. “I must be distracted.”

  “Yeah,” Cole didn’t look convinced. “I guess so.” He patted her back. “If you’re sick, you need to tell someone.”

  “No, really.” She hugged him, appreciating his concern. “I’m fine, Cole. I am.” She led him to one of the cases of water. “Take the whole thing outside.” She found a Sharpie pen in the drawer nearby. “Have everyone write their names on their bottles. Otherwise I’ll throw away ten of them half-full later tonight.”

  “Okay.” He looked relieved. “Now you sound like yourself.”

  Good, Ashley thought. If she sounded normal, then things must be normal. She watched Cole leave and then she joined up with her siblings and their spouses at the old farm table, the one where they’d eaten a million meals growing up. Everything was fine. It was a beautiful day, and in a few minutes their dad was going to have the surprise of his life. The week was going to be one wonderful memory after another culminating in their Fourth of July picnic at the lake. Of course everything was fine. Like Dayne had said, what could happen when traffic on the highway was never more than a crawl lately? She felt her heartbeat slow back to normal, and though she couldn’t quite shake her fear, she was able to join the conversation, able to put her irrational thoughts aside. The others were right.

  What could possibly go wrong on a day like this?

  But the group had no sooner sat down to catch up and wait for Erin and their dad to arrive when Landon got a call from a buddy at the fire department. Landon took the call away from the table but when he returned his face looked ashen. He sat down slowly and looked at the others.

  “They might need me. He wants me to keep my phone on.” He looked at Dayne and Ryan, and seemed to avoid the eyes of the girls at the table. “The accident was pretty bad. A semitruck rear-ended a family in an SUV. He was going full speed and the family was at a complete stop, stuck in traffic. There are at least fifteen vehicles involved, and they’re still sorting through the injuries.” He ran his hand along the back of his head. “Must be awful.”

  “Will you need to go?” Dayne’s expression was far more serious than it had been earlier. “You’re the best paramedic in town.”

  “I’ve been away from triage for a while.” Landon bit his lip and still seemed to avoid looking at Ashley. “They know we’re having a family party. He said they’ll only call me if they run out of people to help.”

  Ashley knew her husband. He had to be fighting the urge to head for the highway and help, whether they called him in or not. His desire to protect and serve was that strong. She rubbed his back, trying to focus her attention on him and not these new details of the horrific accident playing out a few miles away. It was easy to pour her attention into Landon, easy to think about how he might be feelin
g.

  Because suddenly and completely the fear she’d known was gone. It had disappeared as quickly as it had taken Landon to say three simple letters. And though many people would be dealing with a bad phone call today, the Baxter family members would not be among those. Because Erin and Sam didn’t drive an SUV.

  They drove a van.

  Twelve

  JOHN STEERED HIS SEDAN TOWARD THE COUNTRY ROAD THAT would lead him to the old Baxter house, the place where Ashley and Landon and their family lived. If he’d had a suspicion that his daughter was up to something before, he was almost certain now.

  “It was the phone call. That was the tipping point.” He smiled at Elaine. “Landon never calls to see if we’re going to be on time for dinner. It’s always sort of an open invitation kind of thing.”

  “Maybe he really didn’t want the dinner to get cold.” Elaine reached for his hand, her expression warm. “I don’t want you to be disappointed.”

  They were almost out of town when a speeding ambulance came up from behind. John pulled over and let the vehicle pass, its sirens blaring, lights flashing. John hesitated before pulling back into traffic. “Whoever’s involved in that emergency, Lord, help them now. Please …”

  “Amen.” Elaine frowned as she stared at the ambulance. “There’s been a lot of sirens today.”

  “I heard them when we were getting in the car.” He was retired now, but a day like this with several accidents or a major incident would’ve required all emergency room doctors to report to duty. “I hope it’s nothing serious.”

  Elaine nodded, and as John pulled back into traffic she helped find their way back to the previous conversation. “So you really think there’ll be more than Ashley and Landon there?”

  “Definitely.” He chuckled, his concern over the sirens and the ambulance easing. “Ashley can’t trick me. She thinks she can, but I’ve been around a few years longer than her.”

  Elaine laughed and the sound was like music in the car. “I think that’s the point.”

  “I mean, if it’s just Ashley and Landon, that’s fine.” He kept his eyes on the road. “But I have a feeling.”

  Elaine leaned back in her seat and watched him. “You’re very handsome for a seventy-year-old.”

  “Thank you. I think.” He made a face. “Let’s not say the number so often. I feel older every time I hear it.”

  Again Elaine laughed. “Okay. Let’s talk about something else.” She thought for a minute. “Tell me about your childhood, what your life was like.”

  John breathed deep. She was such a good friend, so easy to talk to. “It was lonely, actually. I was a baby when my dad was killed in World War II, so I was raised by my mom. An only child.”

  “Which is why you always wanted a big family.”

  “Exactly.” He loved this, that he could talk about the past with Elaine. She had no jealousy in her, no reason to avoid the years when Elizabeth was at the center of his life. Those decades mattered to him, in a different way than this season in his life mattered. He was entitled to make memories and remember and cherish both. At least that’s the way Elaine saw it, and for that John would always be thankful.

  “Elizabeth felt the same way. Right from the beginning we talked about having a big family.” He hesitated, the memories fresh and raw once more. “When she got pregnant we both knew the mistake we’d made. We asked God to forgive us, but we didn’t for a minute think we wouldn’t keep our baby.”

  Instead, her parents sent her away and he was unable to have contact with her. There were no cell phones, no way to get a message to her except by driving the six hundred miles to see her in person — which he did twice during her pregnancy.

  How great was God to allow them to find Dayne again all those years after Elizabeth had been forced to give him up? “One after another the kids came, but always there was one missing. Even when we didn’t talk about it with each other we felt his loss.” He smiled at Elaine. “I’ll be forever grateful that she got to meet him before she died.”

  “It was her prayer for so long.”

  “Yes.” John turned onto the familiar street and slowed a little. “Don’t want to be too early.” He grinned at her. “In case there’s a houseful.”

  “John!” Elaine laughed, but her expression was a little concerned. “What if it’s just them? You can’t be disappointed.”

  “I’m just teasing.” He chuckled and rolled down the window, letting the sweet country air fill the car. “Ashley’s always up to something. I like trying to second-guess her.”

  They pulled into the driveway and almost immediately John sat up straighter in his seat. “Ahh-haa! I knew it.” He pointed at the parking area. “Unless Cole’s having some sort of backyard party, looks like we might have a few visitors.”

  He easily recognized Luke’s SUV and Kari and Ryan’s car. Brooke’s four-door was there, too. “Ashley can’t fool me.” His tone softened and he felt his heart fill with appreciation. “I love that girl. So thoughtful. I think she’ll spend the rest of her life trying to make up for the years she lost in Paris. Making sure everyone in the family knows how much she loves them.”

  They parked their car but before John could step out his cell phone rang. Whoever it was, they were calling from St. Anne’s. He still had the number programmed into his phone. He lowered his brow and cast Elaine a confused look. “Hello?”

  “John, this is Phil at St. Anne’s. I’m in the ER.” Phil was an intern when John first began thinking of retiring. His voice sounded strained, panicked even. “You need to get down here.”

  He shifted, his heart rate speeding up. “You need more doctors?” The accident must’ve been worse than they imagined. “What happened?”

  “No.” The man mumbled a few cusswords under his breath. “John, it’s your daughter. The car she and her family were in … it was hit by a truck half an hour ago. It’s not good. Get down here right away.”

  “Are you sure?” He did a count of the cars parked adjacent to his. There had to be a mistake. Everyone was here. “I think they’re all at Ashley’s house.”

  “No, John. This is very serious. Please … get here now.”

  “Okay.” He could barely draw a breath, barely feel himself ending the call and looking at Elaine. Even then he couldn’t bring himself to say the words.

  “John …” she reached for his hand, her eyes suddenly wide. “What is it? What happened?”

  He stared at the parked cars and another thought hit him. One of the guys could’ve brought the family car, and maybe it was Kari — in their second car. Or maybe Peter was here, but Brooke and the girls were in their SUV. He swallowed, trying to find his voice. “That was Phil from St. Anne’s. He said …” Something about putting words to the horrific news made it real. Or at least possibly real. There had to be some sort of mistake.

  “Tell me.” Elaine sounded as panicked as John’s doctor friend. “What happened?”

  “Phil … Phil says it was one of my girls and her family. In the accident.” He unbuckled his seat belt. “He said to get down to the hospital right away.” He shook his head, more determined than ever.

  “Dear God, no.” Elaine closed her eyes for several seconds. She looked pale when she opened them. He could see the plan forming in her mind before she spoke it. “We need to get inside.” Her words were slow and deliberate. As if she could only fight the terrifying possibilities by focusing on the practicality. “We need to see who’s here. That’s the only way …”

  John nodded, because he couldn’t speak, didn’t dare let himself believe that Phil was right and they needed to get to the hospital. But Elaine had a point. The only way to know was to get inside. He slid his keys into his pocket and motioned for Elaine to follow him. Before he stepped out, he hung his head. What was he thinking, heading into the horrific unknown without praying? Even if it wasn’t his daughter, someone’s family had been very seriously injured.

  “Pray with me, Elaine. Please.” He took her hand and
squeezed it while he began. “Father, You know my racing heart. You know my fear. Lord, this reality belongs to someone. Someone’s daughter, someone’s family. I come before You begging You that today the cup not be mine. That You would help us make the walk to Ashley’s front door and that once inside Ashley and Kari and Brooke and Luke and their families would all be accounted for.” He exhaled and heard the raspiness in his breathing. “Whatever we find in the next few minutes, we can’t walk through it without You. Please, Father … hold us up. Thank You for whatever You have for us today. Because whatever it is, we believe You are with us. In the powerful name of Jesus, amen.”

  “Amen.”

  John opened his eyes. Elaine looked almost green with worry. He slid his feet out of the car. “I don’t want to go inside.”

  “We have to.”

  She was right, of course. They didn’t have time to waste, because if one of his daughters and her family was indeed at the ER, he needed to get there immediately. The two of them walked up the front steps, their arms around each other. As they reached the door, John barely knocked before someone flung it open.

  “Surprise!” The foyer was full of his kids and grandkids, and John caught his breath. In the horror since the phone call he’d completely forgotten about his birthday. But even as they surrounded him and hugged him and even as he went through the motions of reacting to their surprise, John could only do one thing.

  Count his kids.

  Kari and Ryan and their children — accounted for. Brooke and Maddie and Hayley, all there. Ashley and Landon and their three, present. Luke and Reagan and Johnny, Tommy and Malin — all a part of the happy crowd hugging on him and kissing his cheeks and wishing him a happy birthday. Even Dayne and Katy and Sophie and baby Egan were there, and in the recesses of his mind John was stunned that his older son would’ve flown in for his birthday party.

  Gradually he felt himself exhale, and beside him he felt Elaine do the same thing. They were all here. Erin was in Texas and his other sons and daughters were here with him. Phil had been wrong after all. It took several minutes — minutes that felt like hours — for his nerves to settle and for the group to migrate to the kitchen. Only then did his family quiet down, and only then did concern flash in the eyes of Dayne and Ashley and Brooke. The others were busy getting the kids situated, readying the kitchen for dinner.